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Monday, July 19, 2010

How Many Times Before We Learn? - Tawny Weber

by Tawny Weber

My dog met a skunk last night. Again.

She's met this skunk before. Possibly not this exact same skunk, but the same general encounter. Strange animal ventures into our back yard, Sierra the dog chases and corners the strange animal and then gets sprayed in an ugly stinky way. Now, last time this happened, we had the whole miserable tomato bath with the nasally accompanying lecture (nasally because I was holding my nose and trying not to gag). We had to replace her collar. We had a moratorium on petting for a whole week. You'd think she'd learn, right? And yet, less than two months later, I'm hauling in the fan and opening cans of tomato juice.

Why didn't she learn her lesson? How many gallons of tomatoes are we going to have to go through - will we have to resort to ketchup?

Good thing we humans aren't like that, huh?

Hahhahaaahaaaa. Just typing that makes me laugh. I've got a bigtime history of not learning my lessons the first time.

Let's see. There was the black hair debacle. Then, two years later, a repeat, just to make sure I knew how I'd look when I was two-weeks dead.

There was this guy I dated in high school, with a really ugly breakup. Then because I apparently didn't remember the ugliness of both the relationship OR the breakup, I revisited the relationship in my early twenties. Just, you know, for a good ole miserable time.

Then there was the short hair so I can look like a bowling ball nightmare (yes, I repeat a lot of hair mistakes.) And the third drink at a wedding when two is my limit mistake (okay, so that one is actually kinda fun). And the being honest with a friend when they ask what I think of her new boyfriend mistake (I usually get the friend back after she breaks up with the boyfriend, though).

I mean, obviously I know better. I'm an intelligent woman. And yet, I keep repeating these egregious errors. Why? Because they were so much fun the first time? Well, the third drink one, maybe.

So here's my question to you. I can't be alone, can I? Have you ever made the same mistake twice? Care to share? And how does one keep dogs and skunks apart, for crying out loud? I mean, she soaked in tomato juice and she still stinks to high heaven.

LOTS and LOTS, Tawny! I think it's not in our nature to learn quickly--why do I have a closetful of similarly unflattering clothes, for instance? ;) And really, this has been well-documented even way back during Old Testament times--those poor Israelites couldn't get it right, just to remind us who read their story now that we can't get it right either. Thank God for second (or seventeenth) chances! ;)

Oh yeah, I've made some mistakes that were bad and some funny. I think the worst one was trying to make friends with my friends bird...big mistake, darned thing bit me. Then I tried making friends with another friends ferret...another mistake and another bite. You'd think I'd learn...

We live out in the country, and our black lab seems to feel like she's naked without a little skunk odor. We gave up on tomato juice a long time ago. We have purchased products from pet stores, but have also had pretty good results from a mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and dish soap. There are more specific mixing directions online. Try this article: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_remove_skunk_odor